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This paper investigates the effect of state-society relations on the industrially-related growth paths of developed countries.

It introduces a novel theoretical framework, the state-business-labor relations (SBLR) framework, where four main actors are identified: the state, big businesspersons or tycoons, owners and managers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) or Entrepreneurs and labor. Different SBLR categories or modes are introduced depending on levels of coordination and power relations between the studied actors. The paper then investigates how these SBLR modes, through adopting various policies targeting the industrial sector, lead to different growth paths. Rather than focusing only on economic growth, this research regards a growth path as a matrix of the performance in long-run growth and equality of distribution.

Using regression analysis and statistical data, the results suggest that the Co-Balanced mode, having higher levels of coordination and lower favoritism, leads to the best growth path among the four introduced modes, especially with its emphasis on high levels of venture capital availability and easiness of starting business. while the Lib-Capture mode, characterized by lower coordination and higher favoritism, seems to have the worst growth path and the best implemented policy for this mode is suggested to be high profit taxes that seem to counter the negative impact of the existing high levels of favoritism.

Despite the important findings that this research has reached, this paper is mainly meant to open a further investigation into this topic and open this dimension that the research on VoC and political economy have under-researched. A deeper investigation of SBLR typologies that could only be possible by having richer datasets with more data on coordination for the whole world, rather than only the advanced economies, would further our understanding of the dynamics that shape the growth paths of different countries of the world.

To realize the best industrial growth path, fighting favoritism should be an important objective. The negative impact of favoritism on innovation could not be disregarded in the eve of the fourth industrial revolution, where innovation is increasingly pivotal to future industrial development. Actively engaging societal groups in the policymaking process is important in addressing their concerns and balancing them at the same time. This should lead to the double benefit of formulating better policies that should foster growth as well as provide better distribution of this growth. High levels of coordination should help in realizing this objective. Yet, this could only be possible if societal groups are free to associate and aggregate their power and when there are means of preventing one actor from gaining more favorite treatment and exclusive influence over policymakers. The presence of both powerful and broadly represented business associations and labor unions and the existence of a government interested in coordinating their efforts-rather than letting itself be controlled by one group at the expense of the others-should help in the realization of the best growth path. Thus, institutional reform that empowers societal groups and enables them to defend their interests as well as fights all forms of corruption should lead to the realization of a more prosperous and equitable industrial development, with the “re-industrialization” of the developed world being no exception. The technological and social challenges of intensive automation and digitalization accompanying the fourth industrial revolution make the envisaged institutional reform more urgent.

This paper is introducing a novel theoretical framework for studying the effect of state-society relations, particularly SBLR, on the industrial growth paths of developed countries. It integrates three important bodies of literature in order to build a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of state-society relations and their economic consequences. These are the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC), State-Business Relations (SBR) and Industrial Relations. The SBLR framework differentiates between tycoons and entrepreneurs, an important distinction that often goes unnoticed. Different SBLR categories or modes are introduced, depending on levels of coordination and power relations between the actors. It is proposed in this research that the effect on growth paths goes beyond the simple dichotomy between CMEs and LMEs usually present in the literature of VoC and that power relations provide an essential complementary dimension in explaining this causality.

Taking the Mamá Fit memes and other social media eruptions as a starting point and delving deeper into popular print media, this chapter traces the racialized and gendered practices that constitute fitness in El Salvador in a diasporic context. Importantly, the word fit is now often expressed in English, captured in the names of commercial gyms and diet advertisements; the use of this word signals an important cultural change in conventional understandings of the body in a Spanish-speaking society. By charting the emergence of this new health/beauty norm in a transnational domain, this chapter explores the relationship between shifting patterns of gendered body discipline and changes in El Salvador’s location within the global political economy. This chapter argues that fitness discourse has become a subtle, but powerful, conduit for coloniality during a renegotiation of the meaning of gender to fit a neoliberal reality. The argument ends by pointing in the direction of future research to explore how this discourse is experienced in embodied practice with potentially contradictory impacts in Salvadoran society.

This study aims to combine two theories, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Norm Activation Model (NAM), to investigate the relationship between the awareness of reducing single-use plastic waste's environmental cost and the behaviour to limit the use of single-use plastic products (SUPPs) by FPT university students.

Quantitative research methodologies were employed on a sample of 506 university students. The survey data was then examined using SPSS, SPSS AMOS and SmartPLS software.

The overarching conclusion of the study is that awareness of reducing single-use plastic waste's environmental cost has a positive impact on FPT university students' behaviour to reduce their use of single-use plastic products. Another intriguing discovery is how socialisation of responsibility affects pro-environmental behaviour through the interplay between personal norms, subjective norms and behavioural intention.

This study on the relationship between SUPP low-consumption awareness and behaviour and mediating factors is a necessary foundation for future studies related to changing the behaviour of students using SUPPs. That will also be a solid foundation for practical plans to change behaviour using SUPPs through communication campaigns to increase awareness.

This paper aims to explore the potential role of digitalization in reshaping Botswana's assets and liabilities declaration system. Digitalization presents opportunities to not only improve efficiencies in how services are delivered and citizens are engaged but also to integrate innovative ways to combat wicked problems such as illicit enrichment and conflicts of interest in the public service.

This qualitative paper adopts an exploratory research design to investigate how digital technologies can be used to enhance anti-corruption reforms in a developing country context. Primary data, focusing on the shortcomings and successes of Botswana’s asset declaration system, were collected from interviews with key policy actors in Botswana’s anti-corruption landscape, whereas secondary data were drawn from documents such as official reports, news and social media reports and available literature on the topics of digitalization and anti-corruption reforms. A comparative case study approach is used, highlighting successes and challenges in the use of electronic disclosure systems in Georgia, Ukraine and South Africa.

The analysis provides insights into the potential benefits and challenges associated with the integration of digital technologies in the asset and liability declaration process. The integration of digital technologies in the anti-corruption efforts of Georgia, Ukraine and South Africa has contributed to the development of robust electronic declaration systems. However, political resistance, costs, technical capacity and verification processes are identified as some of the core challenges confronting agencies tasked with implementing asset declaration systems.

The political and socio-economic contexts in the country case studies presented are distinct, as are the challenges posed by corruption. Although Botswana can gain insights from the implementation experiences of Georgia, Ukraine and South Africa, policymakers and implementers need to take into account these subtleties and their potential influence on the success or failure of a similar system. The research has implications for policy and practice by proposing an alternative approach to the implementation of Botswana’s asset declaration system. This will be of interest to policymakers, anti-corruption activists and scholars.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, prior research has not studied the relationship between digitalization and anti-corruption reforms in Botswana. This paper contributes to the dearth of knowledge regarding the role of digitalization as a driver of anti-corruption reforms. The paper informs policy decisions related to the implementation of digital transformation initiatives in line with Botswana’s anti-corruption and digital transformation agendas.

Iraqi society has suffered from loss or fragility of human security since 2003. The developmental policies, programs and plans of the successive Iraqi Governments throughout the transitional period have not been able to achieve human security, despite the availability of different resources. They have also not prevented or limited the spread of corruption, according to domestic and international reports. Now the country faces a large phenomenon of corruption and the dilemma of human security loss. This study aims to ascertain the nature of the relationship between the phenomenon of corruption and the dilemma of loss or fragility of human security in Iraq since 2003 to learn about the form of this relationship, how the selected variables contribute to the two phenomena and determine the degree of impact of corruption and its dimensions on human security and its components.

This research uses the social survey methodology of the sample taken from the Iraqi society and benefits from system analysis approach to identify the inputs and outputs of the variables researched. Moreover, the study uses the case study methodology to collect data and information precisely in an in-depth manner to support qualitative and quantitative analysis and clarifies the situation at the macro level of both phenomena.

Findings show the prevalence of corruption structurally in the Iraqi state and society. The contribution of dimensions and selected indicators in the spread of corruption and lack of human security varies. Findings also underline a strong statistical correlation between the two variables and their reverse relationship. In other words, the more the corruption is, the less the opportunities of human security are. There is also a strong impact of corruption and its dimensions on the conditions of human security factors.

The paper provides profitable findings and recommendations, which can be used by the Iraqi relevant institutions to eliminate corruption, achieve human security and benefit from its indicators in research and development.

The new addition of this research can be represented by linking the two phenomena and trying to build national standards with the capacity to describe, interpret and predict.

The aim of the study is to explore the links between multiple personal income tax regimes, pay dissatisfaction, employee lateness and absenteeism. Accordingly, this paper examines the relationships between income tax policies, pay dissatisfaction and the work withdrawal behaviours of employees in the public service.

The study adopted a quantitative design, and data were collected through a structured questionnaire from a sample of 252 respondents from the Bayelsa State Civil Service in Nigeria. Data were analysed by applying multivariate regression and structural equation modelling through the use of Stata software version 12 and SmartPLS version 4.

The results demonstrated that there was a positive relationship between personal income tax regimes and pay dissatisfaction; there was a positive relationship between pay dissatisfaction and work withdrawal behaviour of employee tardiness and absenteeism and pay dissatisfaction mediated the relationships between personal income tax regimes and work withdrawal behaviours of public sector employees.

The study appears to be the first to explore the nexus between personal income tax regimes and pay dissatisfaction and withdrawal behaviours of employee tardiness and absenteeism as well as the mediating role of pay dissatisfaction in public service organisations.

This article problematizes the concept of freedom rooted in liberalism, examining the detention of historian Ilan Pappe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at Detroit Airport in the United States as an emblematic case study.

The research adopts a methodological triangulation approach, based on an analysis that combines data about the event and theories about the concept of freedom, problematizing authors who focused on the relationship between the individual and society in a liberal context, where individualism serves as the basis for specific conceptions of social relations.

Through the use of authors such as John Stuart Mill and John Locke, as well as the contributions of authors like Norbert Elias, it is argued that true freedom is relational, rooted in social interdependencies and the social construction of an individuality that is not individualistic but intrinsically linked to collective aspects.

Pappe’s case illustrates the tensions between individual freedom and collective interests, highlighting the need to reassess freedom of expression in complex political and social contexts.

This article proposes a more inclusive and interconnected view of human freedom, where individual and collective interests are negotiated within a dynamic web of social relations.